Thursday's Daily Pulse

What you need to know about Florida today

| 6/27/2013

› Finding new uses for old toll plazas [Miami Today] As tolling is about to become all electronic in July on State Road 836, authorities are starting the debate on what to do with the old toll plazas that have served their purpose of collecting cash.

› Sarasota County to sever Gulfcoast Legal pact[Sarasota Herald-Tribune] The Sarasota County Commission has notified Gulfcoast Legal Services it intends to terminate its contract with the troubled nonprofit and transfer the remaining funds to Legal Aid of Manasota.

› Florida Democrats vow Medicaid expansion fight is not over[AP] House Democratic Leader Perry Thurston and a delegation of Broward County Democrats voted Tuesday night to pen another letter to Gov. Rick Scott demanding he call a special session to discuss expanding Medicaid coverage to 1.1 million residents, promising constituents they would not just let the issue quietly die.

› Rescued Florida panther gives birth[South Florida Sun-Sentinel] A Florida panther which was rescued as an orphan and released back into the wild has not only survived, she has given birth. Biologists were elated to discover a one-month-old kitten with the panther Saturday in the Fakahatchee Strand, a swampy strip of dense forest in eastern Collier County.

Nobody crashed in Monday’s first hours of the new “wrong way” interchange in Miami. But that’s because Miami cops guided confused drivers in the manner of a first-grade teacher keeping wayward students in line on the first day of school.